Blazing saddles! Firefighters get on bikes to crack down on arsonists

Firefighters are being deployed on mountain bikes in a new initiative to crack down on arson.

They will turn to two wheels to patrol highrisk areas such as heathland and alleyways that are inaccessible to fire engines.

A pilot scheme was unveiled today in Hounslow and could be rolled out across the rest of London if successful. Many neighbourhood police use bikes, as do paramedics in Soho and at Heathrow.

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Two firefighters will ride out each day across Hounslow Heath and through the borough's town centres looking for potential risks such as abandoned cars, piles of cardboard boxes, empty buildings and long grass. They will also patrol school grounds during the summer holidays.

Information will then be reported back to Hounslow council, which has promised immediate action to minimise the danger of deliberate fire-starting. There were 167 grass fires in Hounslow last year - costing more than £268,000 to put out.

Hounslow fire commander Gerard Hollingworth said the idea - which copies similar schemes in Merseyside and Devon - was about "thinking outside the boxî to tackle arson. Across London, 18,654 fires were started deliberately in 2005/6.

He said: "At first the officers were saying, 'Don't be stupid'. But then they said, 'I can see how this can work, what a good idea.'" He added: "However, I must stress that at no point will firefighters be using cycles for emergency purposes."